Pablo Larraín to Direct Angelina Jolie in Biopic About Opera Legend Maria Callas

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín has lined up his next biopic…

The 46-year-old Chilean filmmaker will direct Maria, a biopic about the life of American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas as his next feature, and he’s locked in Academy Award-winner Angelina Jolie in the starring role.

Based on true accounts, the film will tell the tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.

The film was written by Oscar-nominee Steven Knight, who wrote Larraín’s Princess Diana biopic Spencer. The filmmaker’s brother and creative partner Juan de Dios Larraín will produce for Fabula Pictures, alongside Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle Company, and Jonas Dornbach for Komlizen Film.

“Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,” said Larraín. “To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.”

“I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy. I will give all I can to meet the challenge,” added Jolie. “Pablo Larraín is a director I have long admired. To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria’s story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.”

Larraín is best known for features including Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and Jackie, which had Natalie Portman portraying Jackie Kennedy.

He also directed and executive produced the Apple series Liseys’ Story, based on the Stephen King novel. Other notable directorial credits include Ema, Neruda, The Club and No.

Chile Enters Fernando Guzzoni’s “Blanquita” into Oscars Best International Film Race

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Fernando Guzzoni may be contending for an Academy Award…

Chile has submitted the 39-year-old film director and scriptwriter’s Blanquita as its official entry for the Best International Film race at the Oscars.

Guzzoni’s film explores a real-life child prostitution scandal that rocked the country in the early 2000s.

The film was chosen as Chile’s official entry by members of the Chilean Film Academy, in its third selection since its creation in 2018.

“Once again we are witnessing both the quality and diversity of our cinema, as well as the criteria and commitment of our partners: 70% of them voted in this process, the most participatory since we as an Academy have been in charge of choosing the film that represents Chile at the Oscars”, said the body’s executive director Josefina Undurraga.

Blanquita world premiered in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival this year, winning the best screenplay prize for Guzzoni.

Big screen debutant Laura López stars as an 18-year-old resident of a foster home, who is a key witness in a trial against powerful politicians and businessmen implicated in a child sex scandal. As questions are asked, her role in the scandal becomes unclear.

Award-winning veteran actor Alejandro Goic co-stars as a priest who runs the home where the young woman lives. Other cast members include Amparo Noguera, Marcelo Alonso and Daniela Ramirez.

The feature is inspired by the real-life early 2000s Spiniak Case involving a paedophilia ring run by an entrepreneur and sports club owner, which provided services to a number of high-placed politicians and businessmen.

The case divided Chile as it went through the courts, with doubts being cast on the testimony of key witness who was caught up in the ring as a minor and accused two senators of abusing her.

Guzzoni spent a year investigating the case in-depth before writing his screenplay.

“I am very honored that Blanquita is Chile’s representative at the Oscars and grateful for the support of all my colleagues at the Film Academy,” said Guzzoni.

“The film puts forward in a thriller key an urgent issue about impunity and structural injustice in our country, therefore, it combines audience vocation and a story with high social sensitivity,” he continued.

“We believe that the film being awarded in Venice, the great reception from critics and the support of our international partners and distributors will allow us to carry out a campaign that seeks to make Blanquita’s message visible and position the film in the best possible way.”

Blanquita is Guzzoni’s fourth feature after La Colorina, Carne de Perro and Jesús, about a troubled, teenager who turns to violence in search of thrills.

“Blanquita is a powerful and current movie, which should make an impression on the Academy members. I can’t wait for them to see it,” said New Europe CEO Naszewski.

Chile won the Oscar for best international film in 2018 with Sebastían Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, while Pablo Larrain’s No was nominated for the 2012-13 race and Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent was nominated in the Best Documentary category last year.

The deadline for the Best International Film category closed on October 3, with around 85 titles being publicly declared so far. Last year, there were submissions from 93 countries.

Daniel Brühl to Star in Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s Thriller “Rich Flu”

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Brühl’s acting riches continue…

The 43-year-old half-Spanish actor has joined the cast of the Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia directed thriller, Rich Flu, alongside Macaulay Culkin.

Rosamund Pike is attached to star in the film, which is expected to begin production in the fall.

In the film, a strange disease is killing off some of the richest and most influential people on the planet. First it was the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires and so on progressively. Now it threatens to strike anyone with any sort of fortune, and no one knows where it might end. With the whole world panicking and our very way of life headed for collapse, people are trying to flood the market with assets the world no longer wants.

Pedro Rivero, Gaztelu-Urrutia and David Desola wrote the screenplay with revisions by Sam Steiner.

Sierra/Affinity is handling foreign sales and has the project available to buyers at this year’s Cannes Film Market. CAA Media Finance is representing the film domestically.

Producers on Rich Flu include Pablo Larraín and Juan de Dios Larraín via their Fabula banner, which produced the movies Spencer, Jackie, and No; Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls via the Nostromo Pictures label; Carlos Juárez; as well as Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and Albert Soler.

Brühl, who will next star in Stefano Mordini’s racing film 2 Win, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTAs for Ron Howard’s Rush.

His previous feature credits include The King’s Man, Captain America: Civil War, Inglourious Basterds and the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Pablo Larraín to Direct Kirsten Stewart in Princess Diana Film “Spencer”

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín is taking on the portray of another legend…

The 43-year-old Oscar-nominated Chilean filmmaker will direct Kristen Stewart in the drama Spencer about Princess Diana.

The Steven Knight-scripted film covers a critical weekend in the early ‘90s, when Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working, and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen. The drama takes place over three days, in one of her final Christmas holidays in the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.

“I’ve always been intrigued and fascinated by the Royal Family and how things are in that culture, which we don’t have where I come from,” Larraín said. “Diana is such a powerful icon, where millions and millions of people, not just women, but many people around the world felt empathy toward her in her life. We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She’s a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles.

The film won’t deal with Diana’s tragic death after she left that palace life, but will examine the fraying of the relationship with her husband, and her ferocious love for her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

“It’s about finding herself, about understanding that possibly the most important thing for her is to be well, and to be with herself and by herself,” Larraín explained. “That’s why the movie is called Spencer, which is the family name she had before she met Charles. It’s very contained, set over a few days in Sandringham. They spent Christmas there for many years and that’s where we set the movie in the early ‘90s, around 1992, we’re not specific. It’s Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day, three days, very contained. We get to understand what it is she wants and what she will do.”

“How and why do you decide to do that? It’s a great universal story that can reach millions and millions of people, and that’s what we want to do. We want to make a movie that goes wide, connects with a worldwide audience that is interested in such a fascinating life,” he adds.

Production is expected to begin in early 2021 on the film, which Larraín will also produce.

Larraín previously directed Natalie Portman in Jackie. The film follows Jackie Kennedy in the days when she was First Lady in the White House and her life immediately following the assassination of her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The film earned Portman an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Larraín’s other credits include Neruda, about poet Pablo Neruda, as well as the Spanish-language film No, Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, and The Club.

Music Box Films to Release Pablo Larraín’s “Ema” in U.S. Theaters Next Summer

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín latest film is headed to the U.S.

Music Box Filmshas acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the 43-year-old Chilean filmmaker’s Venice Film Festival drama Ema, starring newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael García Bernaland Santiago Cabrera.

Music Box plans to release the Sundance Film Festival-bound drama in theaters in summer 2020.

Ema charts a woman’s odyssey of personal liberation after a shocking incident upends her family life and marriage to a tempestuous choreographer.

“I feel proud and excited to be working again with Music Box Films, a wonderful company for a movie like Emain the USA,” said feted Chilean director Larraín. “It’s truly amazing.”

The distributor previously released Larrain’s 2015 film The Club.

“This is one of those films that you have to see to believe,” added Music Box Films’ president William Schopf. “Entirely singular, hypnotic, and compelling, it’s a film that absolutely seduces the senses.”

Emamarks the third collaboration between Larraín and García Bernal, after they previously worked together on No(2012) and Neruda(2016).

Guillermo del Toro Wins Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for “The Shape of Water”

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

It’s turned out to be a monster night for Guillermo del Toro…

The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker had a nearly perfect night, picking up his first-ever Academy Awards for his romantic fantasy drama The Shape of Water.

del Toro, who co-wrote, directed and produced the film, was named Best Director, an award he was predicted to win throughout awards season.

Additionally, del Toro’s The Shape of Water took home the night’s top prize, Best Picture.

The romantic fable was conceived by del Toro as a tribute to the monster movies he loved as a child, updated to tell a story about tolerance and compassion that could speak to a contemporary audience.The film ultimately took home four Oscars, the most of any nominee.

“As a kid enamored of movies growing up in Mexico, I thought it would never happened, but it happened,” said del Toro, in accepting the Best Picture award.

del Toro, who missed out on being 3-for-3 when he lost in the Best Original Screenplay category, urged other young filmmakers to take inspiration from his win, and “use the power of fantasy to tell stories about things that are real in the world.”

The award was presented by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who famously announced the wrong Best Picture winner last year, naming La La Land instead of actual winner Moonlight.

He’s the latest Mexican filmmaker to take home multiple awards in the same night… Alejandro González Iñárritu previously scored three Oscar wins in 2015 for Birdman: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

One year earlier, Alfonso Cuaron took home two Oscars for his film Gravity: Best Director. and Best Film Editing.

Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Dia de los Muertos-themed animated film Coco won best animated feature and its featured tune, “Remember Me,” won Best Original Song.

And, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to A Fantastic Woman, from Chile, the story of a transgender person struggling in the aftermath of the death of a lover.

The film edged out Ruben Östlund’s Swedish satire The Square and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Russian fable Loveless.

Directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the film marks the first Chilean entry for the foreign language Oscar since Pablo Larraín’s No, and the first ever Academy award for Lelio, in his follow-up to the acclaimed film Gloria.

At Sunday’s ceremony, the film’s star Daniela Vega became the first openly transgender person to present an award at the Oscars.

Here’s a look at all of this year’s Academy Award winners.

BEST PICTURE
The Shape of Water

ACTRESS
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ACTOR
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

DIRECTOR
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Allison Janney, I, Tonya

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ORIGINAL SONG (PRESENTED TO SONGWRITERS)
Remember Me, from Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Shape of Water, Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049, Roger A. Deakins

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Get Out, Jordan Peele

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
The Silent Child

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

FILM EDITING
Dunkirk, Lee Smith

VISUAL EFFECTS
Blade Runner 2049

ANIMATED FEATURE
Coco

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dear Basketball

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)

PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Shape of Water

SOUND MIXING
Dunkirk

SOUND EDITING
Dunkirk, Richard King and Alex Gibson

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Icarus

COSTUME DESIGN
Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Darkest Hour, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick

Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” Makes Oscars Shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Sebastián Lelio is one step closer to a special date with Oscar…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has whittled through 92 submissions to come up with its shortlist of nine titles to advance in the Best Foreign Language Film category this year, with the 43-year-old Argentinian-born Chilean filmmaker still in the running.

Sebastián Lelio

Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, Chile’s pick to enter the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, joins other favorites like Ruben Ostlund’s The Square (Sweden) and Loveless from Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev in advancing to the next round.

Each of those was nominated for a Golden Globe earlier this week. As was Fatih Akin’s Germany terrorism drama In The Fade, which has seen its street cred solidified by the Academy with tonight’s shortlist inclusion.

The final five Academy Award nominations in the race will be announced along with the rest of the categories on January 23.

Films also making the cut include Berlinale Golden Bear winner On Body And Soul from resurgent Turkish director Ildikó Enyedi; and Venice favorites Foxtrot, from Israel’s Samuel Maoz, and The Insult by Franco-Lebanese helmer Ziad Doueiri.

The last Spanish-language film to earn a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category was Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (representing Colombia) in 2015.

The Last Spanish-language film to win the Oscar in the category was Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes (representing Argentina) in 2009.

In 2012, Chile earned its first and only Oscar nomination in the category with Pablo Larrain’s No, which starred Gael Garcia Bernal.

Here’s this year’s complete shortlist:

Chile, A Fantastic Woman, Sebastián Lelio, director;
Germany, In the Fade, Fatih Akin, director;
Hungary, On Body and Soul, Ildikó Enyedi, director;
Israel, Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz, director;
Lebanon, The Insult, Ziad Doueiri, dirctor;
Russia, Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Senegal, Félicité, Alain Gomis, director;
South Africa, The Wound, John Trengove, director;
Sweden, The Square, Ruben Östlund, director.

Larrain’s “The Club” Selected as Chile’s Bid for the Oscar’s Foreign Film Category

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larrain is Chile’s choice for Oscar glory once again…

The 39-year-old Chilean filmmaker and former Oscar nominee’s latest film, The Club, has been selected as the nation’s bid for the Academy Awards‘ Best Foreign Language Film category, the Chilean Minister of Culture Ernesto Ottone has announced.

At the official send-off for the delegation that will attend the San Sebastian Film Festival, Ottone also announced Maite Alberdi’s documentary Tea Time will be the candidate for the Spanish Goya Awards.

A gripping portrait of four former priests who live secluded in a cabin as a punishment for their past sins, Larrain’s film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

One of Chile’s most renowned directors today, Larrain’s previous film No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, grabbed a Foreign Language nomination in 2013. Before that, his film Tony Manero was Chile’s entry in 2008, but it failed to get a nomination.

Garcia Bernal also stars in Larrain’s upcoming Neruda, about the political persecution of Chile’s renowned poet and left-wing senator Pablo Neruda, played by Luis Gnecco.

His next project, the Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, will be produced by Darren Aronofsky, Scott Franklin, and Chile’s Fabula, lead by Larrain’s brother Juan De Dios.

“What is relevant now is that we have two Chilean films that have already been awarded abroad, and they are aiming to secure a nomination for these academies,” said Ottone. “These awards are an important platform to make local productions visible, as they are creating a unique mark. So, we congratulate their creative teams for proposing new ways to see today’s Chilean society, both from an intimate perspective in Tea Time, and from the social questioning The Club suggests,” he added.

Garcia Bernal Cast in Amazon Studios Pilot “Mozart in the Jungle”

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Gael García Bernal is about to get classical…

The 34-year-old Mexican actor/director has signed on to star in Amazon Studios’ comedy pilot Mozart In The Jungle.

Based on the memoir by Blair Tindal of the same name, the project is all about sex, drugs and classical music and shows that what happens behind the curtains at the symphony can be just as captivating as what happens onstage.

García Bernal, best known for his roles in Y tu mamá también, Amores perros and Babel, will play Gustavo, an enfant terrible who’s utterly devoted to his art as a conductor — but also to his image.

The pilot was written by Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Alex Timbers.

García Bernal, who last appeared on screen in the Oscar-nominated Spanish language film No, will next star in the films The Ardor and Rosewater.

García Bernal Currently Filming “El Ardor” with Alice Braga

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Gael García Bernal will soon be sharing the screen with Alice Braga…

The 34-year-old Mexican actor and the 30-year-old Brazilian actress are currently filling El Ardor in Argentina.

Written and directed by Pablo Fendrik, the film centers on a mysterious man who emerges from the Argentinian rainforest to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a poor farmer after mercenaries murder her father and take over his property.

García Bernal, Juan Pablo Gugliotta and Nathalia Videla Peña are producing the film with Participant PanAmerica.

BAC Films will commence international sales outside North and Latin America at Cannes Film Festival. Participant previously collaborated with García Bernal on last year’s Oscar-nominated film No.

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: No